German Patent Application No. DE 198 52 959 A1 describes a system of a bull bar on a motor vehicle bow, which is supported on load-bearing parts of the motor vehicle body using rigid rod profiles. The bull bar is extendable and may cause an extension of the crumple zone of the motor vehicle in case of crash.
Furthermore, impact absorbers (crash absorbers), e.g., in the form of crash boxes are used in the field of impact absorption (crash absorption), which have a defined stiffness. Crash boxes having defined stiffness are currently primarily used to meet demands of AZT crashes. Adaptive crash boxes are also used, which may change their stiffness depending on the situation, on the basis of a surroundings sensor system or pre-crash sensor system.
In addition, deformation elements are used, which may reduce their stiffness especially to improve pedestrian protection.